Allen Tager, Woman with Owl, 1988, Germany, 140x140cm, oil on canvas

Intuition is universal, not individual. It is synthetic, not analytical. It is spontaneous and unique, opening access to doors which would forever remain closed to the rational intellect, even if equipped with a stringent logic and a rich erudition . Intuition is not to be confused with instinct – it is above both the animal part of human nature and the individual rational thought.

The latter can form a question, but it is intuition alone which gives the crucial answers. It is important to realize that wisdom and understanding are preferable not only to ignorance, but also to a commodity as highly valued nowadays as knowledge, the amassment of facts. To quote Kandinsky:

“Abstract art derives from the same source as most other art forms: from intuition. […] till today, purely intellectual work, devoid of an intuitive element, has never lead to the birth of living art […] hence [constructivist painters] had to correct the work of their minds by timeless intuitive insights” (Kandinsky 2008, volume 2, 314-316, translation by the author).

While the mind merely reacts, the soul creates. R-e-a-c-t, c-r-e-a-t-e – the words are so similar, but the difference is vast. Contemporary psychological science distinguishes three aspects of the human intellect. Together, they constitute the essence of human nature:
— the base concrete intellect, the so-called „common sense“, directed mostly at surviving. This is what education and psychology mostly deal with;
— the individual intellect, a rational analytical function of an educated person’s mind;
— the intuitive intellect, a direct link to the world of ideas, to the core of philosophy. In the modern age, leading scientists, artists and some politicians have access to this form of thinking.

The overwhelming majority of humans use only the concrete and the individual intellect. This is an achievement in its own right, an integration of the instinctive and the intellectual nature. However, to create what we call genius all three aspects must be integrated. This threefold flow of thought is unruptured; the mind is enraptured by the direct access to the world of sense, opened by the intuitive intellect. This is the key element of genius – the synthesis of all three human thought patterns, including the ultimate one.

Instinct + Intellect + Intuition = The Triple "I".

This equation illustrates how the true, higher self (“I”) manifests itself in this synthesis.
Deep reflection about the laws of life and nature, if conducted with perseverance and not given up when the limitations of the individual intellect have been reached, cannot but open the access to intuition. The greatest minds of today know this. If we are prepared to estrange ourselves from the restrains of traditional mental processes, then this is the new paradigm which allows thinking deeper:

The five senses are but a prelude to the sixth sense – the intellect.

The six senses are but a pedestal to the highest, the seventh sense – the intuition.